E 



AN APPEAL 



*x 



■F E^ ED O M, 



MADK IN THB 



ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF KEW YORK, 



IVIA-RCH 7tli, 18S9. 



BY 



HON. CHARLES S. SPENCER, 



OF THE CITT OF KEW YORK. 



ALBANY: 

WEED, PAKSONS &. COMPANY, 

1859. 




Book • OIO - 



AN APPEAL 



F E E E D O M, 



iiAJDE IK THE 



ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, 



Mi^RCH T'tli, 1859. 



*^/^ V. 




BY 



y 



HON. CHAELES S. SPENCER, 



OP THE CITY OP NEW YOEK. 




^ ALBANY : 

WEED, PARSONS & COMPANY. 
1859. 



AN APPEAL FOR FREEDOM. 



Messrs. Shotwell Powell, Charles S. Spencer, 
Alma^nzor Hutchinson and James M. Northrup, from 
a Select Committee, reported the following bill : 

AN ACT 

TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF THE CITIZENS OF THE 
STATE OF NEW YORK. 

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate 
'and Assembly, do enact as follows t 

Section 1. No person within this state shall be considered as pro- 
perty, or siil.)ject as such to sale, purchase or delivery ; nor shall any 
person within the limits of this state at any ixvae be deprived of lib- 
<€rty or property without due process of law^ 

§ 2. Due process of law, mentioned in the preceding section of this 
act, shall in all cases be defined to mean the usual process and forms 
in force by the laws of this state, and issued by the C9urts thereof; 
^and under such process such person shall be entitled to a trial by jury. 

§ 3. Whenever any person in this state shall be deprived of liberty, 
arrested or detained, on th« ground that such person owes service or 
labor to another person, not an inhabitant of this state, either party 
may claim a trial by jury^ and shall have twenty peremptory chal- 



Jenges, and in addition thereto the other challenges to which a persoifr 
indicted in this state is entitled. 

§ i. Every person who shall deprive or attempt to deprive any- 
other person of his or her liberty,, contrary to the provisions of the- 
preceding sections of this act, sliall be guilty of a felony, and shall^ 
on conviction thereof^ be suljected to a fine not exceeding five thou- 
sand dollars nor less than one thousand dollars, and by imprisonment 
in the state prison for a term not exceeding twenty years nor less tha&. 
five years : provided, that nothiag in said preceding sections shall 
apply to or aflfect the right to arrest or imprison for any contempt of 
court. 

§ 5. Neither descent, near of remote, from an African,, whether such 
African is or may have been a slave or not, nor color of skin or com_ 
plexion, shall disqualify any person from being or becoming a citizen 
of this state, nor deprive sucrl person of the rights and privileges- 
thereof. 

§ 6. Every person who- may have been held as a slave, who shall 
come or be brought or be in this state with the consent of his or her 
alleged master or mistress, or who shall!, come or be brought or be m 
this state, shall be free. 

§ "Z. Every person who shall hold or attempt to hold in this state, 
in slavery, or as a slave, any person, or any free person in any form,. 
or for any time however short, under the pretence that such person is 
or has been a slave, shall, on conviction thereof, be imprisoned in the- 
state prison for a terra not less than five years nor more than twenty 
years, and be fined not less than one thousand dollars nor more than 
ken thousand dollars. 

§ S. Any person sustaining wrong or injury, by any proceeding 
punishable by the preceding sections of this act, may maintain an 
action and recover damages therefor in any court of record in this- 
state. 

§ 9. No person, while holding any office of honor, trust or emolu- 
ment under the laws of this stale, .shall in any capacity issue any 
warrant o-r other process, or grant any certificate under or by virtu® 
of an act of the Congress of the United States, approved ihe twelfth 
day of February, A. D. seventeen hundred and ninety-three, entitled 
*' An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping fron> 
ihe service of their masters/' or under and by virtue of an act of said 



6 

Congress, approved Ihe eigliteenth day of September, A. D. eighteett 
hundred and fifty, entitled " An act to amend and supplementary to 
?in act respecting fugitives from justice, or persons escaping from 
the service of their masters," or shall in any capacity serve any such 
warrant or other precess. 

§ 10. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of section 
nine of this act shall be deemed to have resigned any commission 
from this state which he may possess, his office shall be deemed 
vacant, and he shall be forever thereafter ineligible to any office of 
trust, honor or emolument under the laws of this state. 

§ 11. Any pei-son who shall act as counsel or attorney for any 
claimant of any alleged fugitive from service or labor, under or by 
virtue of the act of Congress mentioned in the ninth section of this 
act, shall be deemed to have resigned any commission from this state 
that he may possess, and he shall be thereafter incapacitated from 
appearing as counsel or attorney in the courts of this state. 

§ 12. Any sheriff, deputy sheriff, jailor, coroner, constable or offi- 
cer of this state, or any policeman <5f any city or town, or any district, 
■county, city or town officer, or any officer or other member of the 
militia d( this state, who shall hereafter arrest, imprison, detain or 
return, or aid in arresting, imprisoning, detaining or returning any 
person, for the reason that he is claimed or adjudged to be a fugitive 
from service or labor, shall be punished by a fine not less than one 
thousand dollars nor more than five thousand dollars, and by impri- 
sonment in the state prison for not less than two years nor more than 
ten years. 

§ 13. The governor of this state, by and with the advice and con- 
sent of the senate, shall appoint for every county of this state an 
attorney, whose duty it shall be to defend every person claimed as a 
fugitive, under the provisions of the acts of Congress mentioned in 
the ninth section of this act, and each of said attorneys so appointed 
shall receive fifty dollars for each person defended by him under the 
provisions of this act, and shall be paid by the state treasurer, on a 
warrant to be issued by the governor. 

§ 14. This act shall take effect immediately. 

This bill was made a special order for Monday, March 7, 

1859, 



On that day the House went into Committee of the Whole- 
upon the bill, Mr. Bushnell in the Chair, and Mr. Charles. 
S. Spencer, of New York, addressed the House as follows f 

Mr. Chairman : 

<^We live in a republic, whose basis is the principle of lib- 
erty and equality ^ in a republic which was the fruit of a 
revolution incited by oppression ; in a republic, the vitality 
of which is embraced in the spirit of the expression, "Resist- 
ance to tyranny is obedience to God." Upon a considerable 
portion of this republic rests with deadly weight the curse of 
human slavery, and the shadow of this eurse is thrown over 
the whole republic. We live in a state called Free, in con- 
tradistinction to those states called Slave. What a bitter 
reflection is that which brings to us the conviction that under 
a common constitution, purporting to promulgate the eternal 
principles of freedom, there are a portion of our fellow-citi- 
zens recognizing, by the laws of the states in which they livCf 
the right of man to buy, sell and own his fellow-man, as he 
buys, sells and owns the brute beasts of the field, and to 
pursue and reclaim these human chattels upon soil where no 
law repudiates and denies tke right of every man to own 
himself Until there are material amendments made in our 
federal constitution, or until those states recognizing and 
maintaining the institution of slavery shall emancipate their 
bondmen, and restore them to that liberty for which God 
created them, or until injustice and cruelty shall breathe the 
breath of vigorous life into insurrection, which shall strike 
down the oppressor and break the fetters of the oppressed^ 
the cry of the suffering slave must mingle with the boastful 
and vain shoutings for freedom and independence of his ma»- 



ter. The freemen of the states of the Union where all men, 
who forfeit not freedom by crime, are free, can only attack 
the great national evil of slavery by such federal and state 
legislation as is permitted by the federal and state constitu- 
tions under which they live. Such legislation is eminently 
humane, is eminently just, and is of an importance which 
entitles it to prompt and careful consideration. The slave 
driver, and the institution which his lash, his revolver, his 
bowie-knife and his insolent arrogance sustain, ought to be 
attacked whenever and wherever he can be assailed under the 
constitution. He should have his " pound of flesh, no more, 
no less, but not one drop of blood." He should be permitted 
to reach the limit which he legally can reach, but forbidden 
to advance a hair's breadth beyond. He should be taught by 
the action of the representatives of the Free states in Con- 
gress, and by the action of the Legislatures of the Free 
states, that his traffic in human flesh is viewed with horror and 
disgust, and will be obstructed, harassed and assailed in every 
manner permitted by the constitution and laws of the land. 

Mr. Chairman: The passage, by tjiis Legislature, of the 
"Personal Liberty Bill," which is now the subject of our 
consideration, will strike a severe blow at this infamous insti- 
tution of slavery. Sir: A gifted citizen of Massachusetts, 
the Quaker poet, Whittier, than whom there breathes not a 
truer friend of the slave, has said, 

"For us and for our children, the vow which we have given, 
For Freedom and Humanity, is registered in Heaven. 
No slave hunt in our boi-ders, no jnrate on our strand, 
No fetter in the Bay State, no slave upon our land." 

IThe Legislature of Massachusetts, with its glorious past 
and proud present, has given force and vitality to the senti- 



8 

ments of this poet by legislative enactments. Vermont, the 
home of revolutionary heroes, whose soil has drank deeply 
the blood of freemen battling for liberty — Vermont, the star 
of freedom that never sets, has preceded us in the enactment 
of a law shnilar to that now before us, and embracing the 
bulk of its sections. Outraged humanity calls upon this 
imperial state to follow in the train of these noble common- 
wealths, and I believe that the call will be answered. The 
provisions of this bill have, doubtless, been carefully read by 
every member of this house. We have read denunciations 
of it in the Democratic public press. The Republicans of 
this house have been charged with having unfurled the black 
bannei' of nullification, with aii attempt to compass uncon- 
stitutional legislation. We are told that the State of New 
York is, under the constitution of our country, a free slave- 
hunting GROUND, where southern blood-hounds have the 
right to howl upon the track of the weary fugitive, where 
any man in whose veins courses a drop of negro blood can be 
claimed to be a slave, and without a trial by a jury, and 
through the instrumentality of a. hurried and oftentimes a 
prejudiced examination before a single commissioner, dragged 
to a southern plantation, there, without money and without 
friends, to try the question whether he is a slave or a freeman. 
Sir : I am not surprised that northern Democracy is the 
advocate for the southern slaveholder! Gratitude, rather 
than conscientious conviction, may be the exciting cause of 
this advocacy, for 

" The cant of Democrary dwells on the lips ' 

Of the forgers of fetters and wielders of whips." 

The advocates of the law ask not for money from your 
treasury, ask not for any exclusive or special privileges for 



an individual or an incorporation ; they ask that you recog- 
nize by your legislative action the sovereignty of feeedom 
over the soil of New York, and the right of every man to be 
protected in the enjoyment of its blessings, except when he 
forfeits them for causes acknowledged by the laws of your 
states They ask that through you the voice of New York 
shall be heard throughout the civilized world, declaring that 
under her constitution and laws men are not chattels, and 
that within her boundaries they shall not be treated as such ; 
but whenever claimed to be slaves, shall have the presump- 
tion of liberty at the outset in their favor ; shall have the 
right of trial by jury; shall have counsel assigned to aid 
them in their peril ; shall at all events, when struggling with 
federal officials for liberty, have the same right of challenge 
of the jurors summoned to try the question of the owner- 
ship of themselves which the law gives the murderer, and 
shall have the right, when found by the verdict of the jury 
to owe no service or labor, to sue the baffled kidnapper in 
the courts of the state for damages, and to prosecute him 
therein for felony. They ask that tl>js Legislature declare . 
that God created all men free and equal ; that neither color 
of skin nor African descent is a disqualification for citizen- 
ship ; that the master bringing his slave to this state frees 
him hy the act; that the officers of the state, of every grade, 
shall confine themselves within the sphere of their legitimate 
official duty ; that the attorney-general shall not leave his 
brief, the secretary of state his office, the justice of the 
Supreme Court his seat of justice, the policeman bis guardian- 
ship of the property and the lives of our citizens, and join 
bands of slave-hunters and blood-hounds baying on the track 
of alleged fugitive slaves; that those state officials who pre- 



10 

fer the service of the South, in this the most disgusting and 
detestable of its requirements, shall be deemed to have 
resigned all service in official capacity they owe to this 
state. 

Mr. Chairman : These are the provisions of this law. It 
covers no more ground than this ; it seeks to compass no 
other objects than these. We are told that when, at a former 
session of this body, an eloquent and distinguished friend of 
freedom, who now graces and adorns the Speaker's chair of 
this house, arose in his place and advocated similar senti- 
ments, another member, with startling effect, cried, Treason ! 
Treason ! ! Treason ! ! ! That cry may be repeated during 
this discussion. Sir: In the language of Patrick Henry, 
uttered in the Virginia House of Delegates, when the same 
cry of Treason ! Treason ! ! Treason ! ! ! interrupted his 
burning, eloquent, bitter denunciations of oppression, I say, 
if this is treason, make the most of it. Sir : Those who 
oppose this bill tell us that it is in conflict with the constitu- 
tion of the United States. It is not alleged that it is in con- 
flict with the constitution of the State of New York. On the 
contrary, I think that it will be universally admitted that 
were the State of New York an absolutely independent sove- 
reignty, whose citizens were bound to recognize no other 
constitution than that of the state, this bill would not only 
not conflict with the constitution, but would on the contrary 
give force and practical effect to its provisions. It is only 
alleged that this bill contains provisions which, under a 
sound and correct construction of our federal constitution, 
cannot be sustained. 

Mr. Chairman : I assert, and I believe that by logical 
reasoning I can demonstrate, that this bill does not conflict, 



11 

in any of its provisions, with the constitution of the United 
States, as fairly and properly interpreted and expounded. 

Sir : I do not propose at this time to argue here the ques- 
tion whether there does not exist a Higher Law, before which 
the ]aws of men pale and shrink into insignificance, and lose 
their binding force ; a Higher Law established by Him who 
holds us in the hollow of His hand, and in whose awful pre- 
sence the bond and the free, who shall have well performed 
their duties here, shall hereafter, in common, enjoy the Free- 
dom OP Immortality. I do not propose to base my argu- 
ment, that this bill should receive the votes of the honorable 
members upon the floor of this house, upon the allegation of 
another, that if the law is not constitutional, it ought to be. I do 
not think that it is necessary to take either of these positions. 
Sir : It is a proposition, which I am confident will not be 
disputed by any well informed gentleman, that each state of 
this Union is an independent and absolute sovereignty, as 
against all other states or governments, except where it has 
delegated a portion of that sovereignty to our federal govern- 
ment, or is expressly prohibited by our federal constitution 
from its exercise. Every person within this state was pro- 
tected in life, liberty and property by its constitution and laws, 
before the framing and ratification of the federal constitution, and 
could not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due 
process of law, such due process of law being, by all sound 
and recognized construction, the usual process and forms in 
force by the laws of this state, and providing for a jury trial. 
This state has never parted with this riglit of absolute protec- 
tion of those upon her soil. Nor does the federal constitution 
forbid this state to grant the benefits of this provision of its 
constitution, in existence before the framing of the federal 



12 

constitution, and providing that no person shall be deprived 
of life, liberty or property without due process of law. The 
right of every person to be thus protected, in this state, there- 
fore, exists. Nor is any distinction of race or color made by 
the constitution. It gives protection to all. Due process of 
law, therefore, must have reference to the usual process 
and forms in force by the laws of this state, and must contem- 
plate the right of trial by jury. Hence, any law that enacts 
that a man can be dragged from our soil without due process 
of law, as thus defined, without trial by jury and upon ex 
•parte affidavits taken in a foreign state — declared by the infa- 
mous Fugitive Slave Act to be conclusive evidence of the 
right of the claimant to remove the alleged fugitive — and hur- 
ried to that foreign state, there to try the main issue of liberty, 
is not warranted by the federal constitution, and is repugnant 
to the provisions of our oion. Hence it follows that the fugi- 
tive slave laws enacted by the Congress of the United States 
cannot and do not constitutionally deprive the Legislature of 
this state of the right to enact laws protecting, in the full and 
absolute enjoyment of life, liberty and property, all classes 
and races of persons .protected by our constitution in such 
enjoyment before the framing of the federal constitution. All 
classes and races of persons were fully and absolutely thus 
protected then, therefore we have the right to 'protect them now. 
Mr. Chairman : I have thus shown that the provisions of 
the bill before the house do not conflict with the constitution 
of the Union ; and that the Fugitive Slave Law, so far as it 
authorizes any person, while on the free soil of this state, to 
be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process 
of law, as defined and recognized by the laws of the state, is 
unconstitutional. Now, by no due process of law, thus 



13 

defined and recognized-by the laws of this state, can any man 
be deprived of his ownership of himself or of his liberty, 
except for crime or fraudulent indebtedness. Therefore the 
slave, when his foot presses the soil of New York, becomes a 
freeman ; and the sixth section of this act, which declares that 
every person who may have been held as a slave, who shall 
be brought or come to this state, shall be free, is constitu- 
tional as well as just. This section is the heart of this law ; 
and if the heart beats with a strong and healthy pulsation, it 
imparts vitality and vigor to the whole body. 

But, Mr. Chairman, there is yet another position which I 
believe to be impregnable in support of the constitutionality 
of this law, and which would give us the right to enact it 
even if the State of New York, at the time the federal 
constitution was framed, had ceded away the right to protect 
all persons in the enjoyment of life, liberty and property. 
The constitution of the United States is an aQ;reement or 
compact between several sovereign and independent states, 
by whicli, in consideration of mutual advantages and rights 
given by the one to the other, each yields an equivalent of 
advantage and of right. It can properly be likened to an 
agreement between individuals, by the provisions of which, 
for a tangible and valuable consideration, each party to the 
agreement binds himself to perform certain acts, to assume 
certain obligations. Now, in the matter of all agreements 
and compacts between individuals, if one violates the agree- 
ment or the compact, the other is absolved from all legal 
obligation to fulfill it on his part. 

Sir : The states of the South, holding to the states of the 
North the same relation held by individuals making a com- 
pact or agreement to each other, have, since the making o£ 



14 

this compact or agreement, called the constitution of the 
United States, repeatedly violated it on their part. 
The constitution of the United States provides that "The 
citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and 
immunities of citizens in the several states." Since the 
framing of the constitution, states have been forced into thig 
Union, by the Slave oligarchy, with constitutions depriving 
a portion of the citizens of the Free states of the benefits of 
this provision of the constitution of the Union. In some of 
the Southern states, citizens of the Free states have, under 
the authority of laws enacted by the state legislatures, been 
imprisoned, merely because they came into Southern ports 
on board of vessels, as seamen, engaged in the legitimate and 
lawful service of commerce ; and the Legislature of South 
Carolina enacted a law by which any citizen of a Free state, 
coming into South Carolina and defending his fellow-citizens 
thus imprisoned, and contesting the constitutionality of the 
law, should be deemed to have committed a felony, and should 
be subjected to incarceration in a state prison. 

The venerable and respected Samuel Hoar, delegated by 
the sovereign State of Massachusetts to defend her citizens^ 
iinprisoned because thus as seamen they had entered the port 
of Charleston, was driven from that city, and, if he had re- 
mained and discharged the duties for which he was sent 
there, he would have been imprisoned also. Colored seamen, 
free native-born citizens of the Free states, have been sold 
into slavery for no other reason than because they came into 
Southern ports and assumed the rights of citizens of the 
country. We have the authority of Daniel "Webster, the old 
man eloquent, who so long and so gallantly "stood as a 
sentinel on the watch-tower of liberty," John Quincy Adams, 



15 

and of other great statesmen, that when a portion of the 
states of this Union violate the federal constitution, the 
other states are released from its obligations. I have shown 
that Southern states have violated its provisions. 

The Northern states are, therefore, no longer bound by 
them. Hence it follows that I have shown that which I 
asserted I could demonstrate ; I have proven that even if all 
persons were not protected in life, liberty and property by 
the constitution of our state, before the framing of the federal 
constitution, and even if originally under that constitution 
the provisions of this "Personal Liberty Bill" would have 
been unconstitutional, they are no longer so, and we have a 
right to enact them. 

Sir : There is yet another argument upon which, as iipon a 
rock, I base my assertion that the Personal Liberty Bill is 
constitutional. It has been contended already by Hildreth, 
by Horace Mann, by Charles Sumner — bludgeoned on the 
floor of the United States Senate chamber by a Southern 
member of Congress because he spoke for freedom — and by 
many other statesmen and jurists, that by no legitimate and 
sound construction of the constitution of the United States 
can authority be found therein to pursue and retake, upon 
the soil of a Free state, the slave who has fled from his mas- 
ter, and that the Fugitive Slave Laws of 1793 and 1S50 are 
flagrantly and clearly unconstitutional. 

Sir : Neither the word slavery nor the word slave can be 
found in the federal constitution. The perusal of the debates 
of the convention that framed that constitution shows that 
the delegates therein expressly refused to indorse the institu- 
tion of slavery. Any construction of the federal constitution 
which recognizes the nationality of slavery contradicts and 



16 



nullifies the spirit of its preamble, which, among other things, 
declares that it is framed for the purpose of promoting the 
general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty to the 
People of the United States and their posterity. 

Sir : If the black man is a person he is one of the People, 
and thus secured in the enjoyment of liberty ; and the first 
subdivision of the ninth section of the first article of the 
federal constitution, which has reference to the importation 
of slaves, as we also learn from the published debates of the 
convention, denominates them Persons, and they were so 
designated after a prolonged discussion upon the question 
whether they should be referred to as property, in which Roger 
Sherman, Mr. Madison and others took part. Sir : This federal 
constitution nowhere recognizes property in human beings ; and 
in the convention by which it was framed, Gouverneur Morris, 
Oliver Ellsworth, Elbridge Gerry and others successfully 
opposed such recognition. Sir : The state conventions in the 
New England and Middle States, called to pass upon the 
question whether the federal constitntion should be ratified, 
in their debates and discussions, voted and discussed upon 
the hypothesis and under the belief that by the adoption of 
the constitution they did not, in the most remote manner or 
to the slightest extent, indorse or come in contact with any 
question connected with slavery. For proof of this asser- 
tion I appeal to the truth of history. 

The federal constitution does not grant to Congress imwer to 
enact laws for the recovery of the fugitive slaves, but evidently 
contemplates legislation by the several states upon the clause 
having reference to persons escaping from service or labor. 
There is therefore no constitutional act in existence which 
prevents the passage of this bill, even if I concede that the con- 



17 

stitution by any legal construction of its terms has reference 
to slaves. The fugitive slave laws are unconstitutional, be- 
cause they refuse the right of trial by jury to the alleged 
slave upon the great question of his right to himself — 
a right which, under the common law of England, has 
existed for centuries, of which Congress cannot deprive him, 
and which is not denied to the petty scoundrel who steals 
your pocket-book, or to the midnight assassin who kills your 
friend by a coward and stealthy blow. Because, therefore, 
the constitution has not given to Congress the power to pass 
a uniform law for the recovery of fugitives from service or 
labor — a power of legislation expressly given as to the man- 
ner of proof, in each state, of the public acts, records and 
judicial proceedings of every other state, but omitted in this 
subdivision of section second, article fourth, upon which the 
fugitive slave laws are based — and because the fugitive slave 
laws deny to the alleged fugitive the right of trial by jury, I 
assert that they are unconstitutional, and that whatever may 
be the construction of the constitution with reference to the 
question whether it recognizes property in man, the Legisla- 
ture of every state has the sole and exclusive power to legis- 
late as to the manner in which the fugitive is to be recovered. 
Sir : Liberty is a natural and inherent right, of which a 
person can only be deprived, under any circumstances, by 
positive and direct command of law, expressed in clear and 
unmistakable language. The allegations that slavery is 
recognized by the constitution, and that under the constitu- 
tion Congress has the right to pass a fugitive slave law, are 
only based upon far-fetched and labored rules of interpreta- 
tion and construction. Slavery cannot thus be nationalized. 
2 



18 

Such construction is not warranted. Every intendment is in 
favor of Liberty. 

I have thus far, Mr. Chairman, given the reason why I con- 
tend that the fugitive slave laws are unconstitutional ; why 
the provisions of the bill now before the house, and which 
has been reported by a committee of which I have the honor 
of being a member, are constitutional. We cannot repeal the 
Fugitive Slave Law, but we can enact laws which will prac- 
tically prevent its execution, vindicate the right of this proud 
»tate to protect its citizens in the enjoyment of the rights 
guaranteed to them by our state constitution, and demon- 
strate by our legislative action our abhorrence of an institu- 
tion condemned by Washington, the elder and the younger 
Adams, John Jay, whose surviving grandson inherits his great 
and generous heart, Jefferson and the other fathers of our 
republic. Sir : It is asserted that there is no pressing neces- 
sity for the passage of this law. There are many reasons 
why this Legislature should pass this bill. It is time that 
the hundreds of fugitives passing through this state should 
not be compelled to tax the benevolence of our citizens to 
provide the means for their transportation to the soil to which 
attaches the protection of the British constitution. It is 
time that the fugitive should be permitted with safety to re- 
main with us, and by his labor contribute to his own comfort 
and add ta the wealth of the state. The number of fugitives 
needing the protection of this law every year is greater than 
many suppose. I have. Sir, in my hand a list of the fugitive 
slaves that have passed through this city of Albany, on their 
route to freedom, between the 3d of June last and 1st of 
January last. The number is one hundred and seventy-six, 
and hundreds of dollars have been expended in this city in 



19 

clothing them, nursing them, and sending them on their way. 
One of them I find to have been a slave of a senator from the 
great mother of Presidents, the slave-breeding State of Vir- 
ginia ; another belonged to a deacon in a Baptist church in 
Virginia, who sold forty slaves, including this fugitive, for 
exportation to plantations farther south, there to be over- 
worked and abused for a short time and then die. Thirty- 
nine were probably delivered on the contract of purchase ; 
the fortieth fixed his eye on the beacon of light to freedom, 
the north star, struggled through thickets and morasses, swam 
rivers, bravely struggled on, and, ragged, weary and foot-sore, 
reached friends who helped him on his way, and is now in 
Canada, enjoying under a limited monarchy that freedom 
denied him in a republic. 

Sir : By the passage of this bill you will give the protec- 
tion of law to these men and women, aye, and children, thus 
bravely struggling to secure the blessings of liberty gua- 
ranteed by your federal constitution to the ^people of this 
country. The feelings of the people of this state are of that 
nature which authorize me to assert that if, by the passage 
of this bill, personal liberty is not protected, a human being 
cannot in many portions of the state be attempted to be 
dragged into slavery without imminent peril of insurrection 
and bloodshed. 

Sir: One great purpose of this law is to exhibit the feeling 
of the people of the North; is to, on our part, throw the 
gauntlet down ; to legislate in as unfriendly a manner towards 
slavery as we legally can ; to shadow forth the fact that there 
is a limit to the endurance of the North ; and if ever the 
wave of popular indignation, increased it its volume and 
accelerated in its progress by the aggressions and the inso- 



20 

lence of the Slave oligarchy, shall roll over the line novp- 
existing between Freedom and Slavery, it will sweep away, 
as with the power of a resistless whirlwind, the infamous 
institution of slavery, which impoverishes us at home and dis- 
graces us abroad. 

Sir : There is necessity for the passage of this bill. Slavery 
has been abolished in New York for many years, but it is 
contended that the soil of New York does not yet, when 
pressed by the foot of the bondman, transform him into a 
freeman : I contend that we should enact that no Southern 
slave should have a residence here as a slave, and no Southern 
slaveholder hold his slaves here. The doctrine of the Dred 
Scott decision points in a diiferent direction ; although as yet 
it is but " doctrine, dictum," for the material points claimed 
to have been decided in this Dred Scott case are outside of 
the issues in the case, and therefore not authority. It is, 
however, claimed by the dicta of this decision, and by the 
South, that Slavery is national and Freedom sectional ; that 
the slaveholder has a right to hold his slaves in traiisitu 
through a Free state or states, and that he has a right to take 
and permanently hold them in any territory of the United 
States ; and that the legislature of the territory, the conven- 
tion called to form a constitution for the territory, the state 
legislature of the state admitted under the constitution formed 
by such convention, have neither of them a right to prevent 
any citizen of the South from planting and perpetuating 
Slavery within the limits of the territory, either while it 
remains a territory or after it is admitted to be a state. One 
of the purposes of this law is to demonstrate that the citizens 
of the State of New York regard Slavery as sectional and 
Freedom as national ; that the legal presumption should be 



21 

that a man is not a slave; that the burden of proof should be 
thrown upon the claimant to prove his ownership of the man 
he claims to own ; that a case of probable cause, to be passed 
upon by a single official, should not suffice ; that the main 
body of an inquiry, upon which hinges results so important, 
should not be postponed and sabmitted to the judgment of a 
jury of slaveholders, when the party most interested has no 
fair opportunity and no means for defence, but should, im- 
mediately upon his arrest as a slave, be speedil}'', fairly, 
impartially, and upon free soil, decided by a jury of freemen. 
Sir : The tendency of laws like that now under considera- 
tion is to check, the Slave power in its aggressive march, to 
roll back the black and threatening wave of Southern oppres- 
sion, to teach the Slave power that it will have absolute need 
of its utmost efforts to preserve its existence within its present 
boundaries, without grasping by robbery or bribery the terri- 
tories of other governments in order to aggrandize and per- 
petuate Slavery. Sir : This bill will show to the enlightened 
nations of the world that New York detests the institution of 
Slavery. The effect of the existence of Slavery in this 
country upon the progress of Republicanism and upon the 
amelioration of the condition of the oppressed in other por- 
tions of the world is blighting and deadly. 

" Go, let us ask of Constantino 

To loose his grasp on Poland's throat, 
Or beg the Prince of Mahmoud's lino 

To spare the struggling Suliote ; 
Will not the scorching answer come, 

From turbaned Turk and fiery Russ, 
Go, loose your fettered slaves at home, 

Then come and ask the like of us." 



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